When Rome fell,
do you think the people standing inside—
and not the normal people, not the ones who had created and worked livelihoods for years, years
not the ones who looked out from their doorways at dusk and shivered at the sound of the wind—
do you think, though, that the other people, the ones who hadn’t listened to the winds and hadn’t seen
the signs
Do you think they were surprised?
And of course it didn’t happen quickly, nothing ever does,
Rome burned a slow, agonizing collapse and even then she never really extinguished,
but do you think those people were surprised?
Shocked by an event they should have seen coming?

I think that’s where we are, you know?
Standing shocked, shook silent and still
by something we should have seen coming.
some of us did
or at least one of us
way back

I mean, there’s been an instruction manual for how to handle all of this
how to handle it, and it’s been ours forever
since before we even knew enough to care.

But as to the one of us
John
there are many Johns, many people with the same name that stomp through the sheeves of history
but this one was John.

and that’s it. there were no other specific titles attached to that one that show us who this John was,
what made him special, why he wrote this and how it got tangled up with everything else
some people think that he was there before that he wrote more of it

I don’t know if I like that version best or if I like the idea that he had one chance, one purpose
and that he knew it might not be his for long
because that’s brave. that’s something courageous. you know?
not holding on to something because it needs to become its own.

John.
That’s the way history remembers him
so that’s the way we will too

but anyway, John, he had a vision
a dream
a notion
(prophecy seems so mystical but maybe that’s
what we needed
what we need)
and he met God.
Whoa, God!

Okay, when you see something in italics, you’ve got to say it out loud.
We’re turning this into a call and response
I don’t care if you’re reading this on your own
If you see italics, you’ve got to say it out loud.
That’s how you know you aren’t alone out here
even if your voice is the only company you have
because being alone in these times is far worse than breaking the silence, just for a moment.
Here, we’ll practice.

Amen.

There. See? That was easy.
Anyway. Back to John. And God.

Whoa, God!

There you go.

John found God—hey what’s up God?—and God said
Hey you’ve got to tell the churches some stuff.
There are things that are going to happen. Don’t be scared
and John probably said, “No, I’m pretty scared, actually. This vision is weird.”
Because there were like. Beasts. And stuff.
And all the angels looked really freaky
but he got through it.

the angels and stuff aren’t even the most important part
the events aren’t even the most important part
what is the most important part?

The most important part is that change would happen.

God said, don’t be afraid.
And even if John was, he still stuck around
He still watched it, through to the end.
and then he came back and told us
change would happen
and nothing would be the same.

If we could see the future
If we could see what everything will come to
I don’t know if I would be brave enough to share it.
I don’t know if I’d be brave enough to recognize it
for what it was.

People speculate that the Book of Revelation could be a foretelling of the fall of the Roman Empire.
Do you think the Romans, the people inside, had read it already?
Do you think they looked at the beasts and recognized them?
Do you think they looked at the beasts and recognized

themselves?

          (yeah you were supposed to read that too)

themselves.

They might have been afraid, when they recognized the beasts
They might have wanted to change back
Maybe it wasn’t too late
Maybe some of them did
But maybe some of them forgot that beasts and humans are supposed to be separate
But then the people on the outside.
the ones that were building their livelihoods
the ones that had been disposed from their homes
the ones that were suffering under Roman rule
do you think they saw that as the end?
The Revelation?
Do you think that when they saw the beginnings of something tumbling,
a tower cracking at the foundations,

Do you think they were afraid?

Because I don’t.
I don’t think that was their apocalypse
their Revelation.
I think for them
that must have been
a beginning.